What the U.S. military never expected was that the Tang Empire's army would choose to take the initiative to attack without any strength advantage, and what made them even more unbelievable was the speed of the Tang Empire's army's attack.

Before dawn, the 1st Cavalry Division had two pontoon bridges at the crossing of the upper reaches of the river, which were mainly for the passage of motorized infantry, while the cavalry units were directly wading across the river. The Type 25 tank can directly swim across a river with a depth of one meter and five meters without special preparation, but most of the equipment of the motorized infantry battalion cannot swim across and must rely on pontoon bridges. Fortunately, the U.S. military has stockpiled a batch of bridge-building equipment in Naraburai, otherwise, Zhang Xiaolin would have to spend more time here.

The U.S. military really did not think that they would cross the river here, let alone that the opponent would cross the river here. A reconnaissance unit placed on this side was quickly routed by the armoured units of the 1st Cavalry Division. By the time the U.S. forces reacted, the Fourth Infantry Division had already erected three other pontoon bridges over the river, and most of its troops had crossed the river and come to the north beach, while the vanguard of the 1st Cavalry Division had already rushed north for at least 30 kilometers, and had been attacking northward at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, without encountering stubborn resistance from the U.S. forces at all.

By about ten o'clock in the morning, most of the troops of the 5th Infantry Division had also crossed the river. The 4th Infantry Division had advanced about 20 kilometers to the north, forming defensive lines along the way. The U.S. counterattack was met with stubborn resistance from the 4th Infantry Division, and with the arrival of the 5th Infantry Division, the U.S. realized that they had been outflanked, but this realization came too late.

The 5th Infantry Division did not take part in defensive operations, but advanced as fast as it could. Because the troops were advancing in the field, and the 5th Infantry Division did not have much motorized infantry equipment, most of the vehicles were left behind. With the exception of the three motorized infantry battalions, which were equipped with off-road marching vehicles, the rest of the infantry marched on foot, and their marching speed reached about 15 kilometers per hour, which means that the infantry trotted forward. The three infantry battalions in front would assist the 1st Cavalry Division in capturing the road line north of the American army.

On the east side of the battlefield, the Second Cavalry Division under the personal command of Gu Xunlei came to the northern bridgehead position before dawn. The 3rd Infantry Division was moving into defensive positions, and because the Americans showed no signs of crossing the river from the north to the west, the 3rd Infantry Division deployed only one battalion of defensive forces there, and another battalion of troops at the north bridgehead, and the rest of the troops were all concentrated at the south bridgehead. And seized the hours of the night to expand the depth of the position by hundreds of meters.

After the 2nd Cavalry Division crossed the river, Gu Xunlei immediately asked his troops to penetrate in the direction of the left flank of the American army. In his deployment, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division were responsible for attacking from the west to the east, the 5th Infantry Division was to block the escape route of the American troops from the north, and the 2nd Cavalry Division was tasked with quickly interspersing from east to west to quickly divide the American forces. In this way, we will be able to gain superiority in forces on the local battlefield and quickly annihilate the enemy without engaging in positional warfare with the US forces.

When the Second Cavalry Division crossed the river, the U.S. Army did not pay much attention to it, initially thinking that it was the Tang Imperial Army organizing a counterattack force, and then its attention was focused on the First Cavalry Division that was crossing the river in the west. It can be said that the US military made a serious mistake. The main task of the 1st Cavalry Division was to assist the 4th Infantry Division in its attack. And it was the 2nd Cavalry Division that dealt a devastating blow to the American army.

Gu Xunlei did not give up this opportunity, and by half past ten in the morning, the Second Cavalry Division had been advancing at full speed in the northeast direction, and he did not let his troops fight with the American troops along the way, but kept making a surprise attack. In his eyes, this US army with 8 infantry divisions has become a force that is about to finish, and it is impossible to block his rapid attack, and the first thing he has to do is to cut out the two southernmost US divisions. Then concentrate the forces of three divisions, or even four divisions, and eat them in one go. And then go to deal with the other American troops.

It can be said that this tactic of quickly interspersing and dividing the enemy is the most suitable tactic for armored troops. Although the scale of this battle is still very small, much more "pocket" than the combat operations commanded by Gu Xunlei in the past, its tactical techniques are exactly the same. The fast and fast armored forces with the ability to attack are responsible for interspersing and dividing the enemy, and the divided enemy is handed over to the infantry to destroy. This is also the most commonly used tactic of Gu Xunlei, and perhaps many commanders know the essence of this tactic. But there are not many people who can actually apply this tactic on the battlefield, therefore. To exert the power of this tactic, it is necessary to have a keen sense of observation and the ability to judge the battle situation, to be able to accurately find the enemy's fatal points, and launch a decisive and rapid attack, without giving the enemy any respite and resistance!

Gu Xunlei seized this opportunity. Just after half past ten, he received a message from the 4th Infantry Division. The 4th Infantry Division had already taken up positions on the right flank of the American army, ready to attack at any time. At this time, Gu Xunlei quickly deployed the 2nd Cavalry Division, and at the same time turned to the west, and he also boarded his own tank.

Originally, Gu Xunlei wanted to rush to the front, but as a result, dozens of tanks from the guard battalion immediately surrounded him and wrapped him in the middle. In addition, two cavalry battalions of the 2nd Cavalry Division immediately appeared on either side of the guard battalion. All the officers and soldiers knew very well that it was a serious mistake to let the commander take risks, even if they could not prevent the commander from going to the battlefield himself, and Gu Xunlei was also a well-known tankman in the Imperial Army before he became a general, but now, they would rather sacrifice themselves than let the commander be threatened.

The battle began, and the three cavalry battalions shot like three sharp arrows at the junction of the two American infantry divisions. Nearly 100 tanks were concentrated on the front line with a frontal width of less than 3 kilometers, and the density of their forces was quite terrifying. On the mainland battlefield, the density of armored assault troops is at most one kilometer of offensive front, and 10 to 20 tanks are invested, which is already very high, and sometimes it is good to be able to put in 5 tanks. And this time, Gu Xunlei invested more than 30 tanks per kilometer. And these tanks are divided into several echelons, and even then, the distance between tanks and tanks is only more than 100 meters.

The motorized infantry followed closely behind the tank units, although only one battalion of infantry fought in tandem, but for the armored units of high-speed assault. That's enough. These infantry fought in armoured fighting vehicles, and only dismounted to fight when they encountered stubborn resistance from the infantry, and then set off again. And in fact, the US army was not ready for battle at all at this time, and after a concentrated attack by tanks, the US army quickly collapsed, and the infantry following the tanks did not have much task at all.

The battle was fought very quickly, and at half past eleven, Gu Xunlei joined up with the vanguard of the Fourth Infantry Division. Under Gu Xunlei's arrangement, an infantry regiment of the 4th Infantry Division quickly replaced the 2nd Cavalry Division. And a new line of defense was set up using the positions of the American army. Then, the 4th Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division, and the 2nd Cavalry Division began to launch a fierce assault on the American forces to the south. The 3rd Infantry Division, which was supposed to hold the position on the river beach, also pressed up. As a result, four divisions, at least more than 40,000 officers and men, were engaged in the battle, and they had to deal with less than 30,000 troops. U.S. infantry who are not ready for battle are just that.

The battle of annihilation was fought very quickly, and the cavalry battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division took out the front command of the American army. By one o'clock in the afternoon, Gu Xunlei had the Second Cavalry Division withdraw from the battle, the First Cavalry Division before two o'clock in the afternoon, and the Fourth Infantry Division before evening. The task of cleaning up the battlefield was given to the 3rd Infantry Division, the last of which surrendered shortly after dark, while the 3rd Infantry Division also pushed the line several kilometers north. A new line of defense was created directly on the positions of the American troops.

While the infantry was encircling the American troops, the 2nd Cavalry Division turned first, and after returning to the east side of the battlefield, it again separated the other three American infantry divisions from the battlefield at about 3:30 p.m. It can be said that the speed of the assault of the armored forces played a decisive role. Although the U.S. military has begun to organize resistance, it is simply unable to keep up with the pace of the transfer of armored forces, and the front command of the U.S. military has been destroyed, and the individual American units are fighting almost alone. There is no ability to form a resultant force. It is even more impossible to block the tanks of the Don Empire.

If the 2nd Cavalry Division was like a machete, it cut the American army into several pieces. So. The 1st Cavalry Division was like a dexterous scalpel on the battlefield, cutting the divided American troops into more small pieces. Zhang Xiaolin is very aware of Gu Xunlei's tactical characteristics, he has followed Gu Xunlei to fight on the mainland battlefield for several years, and he knows Gu Xunlei's offensive methods well. He also pulled his troops out of the battle immediately after the 2nd Cavalry Division withdrew from the battle to the south. Immediately, Zhang Xiaolin asked the cavalry and infantry to form a company, and a cavalry company and an infantry company to form an assault force. That is, the 1st Cavalry Division was reduced to zero, and a dozen assault units were organized. At the time when the 2nd Cavalry Division again cut out three American infantry divisions. These assault forces immediately rushed into the battlefield, quickly dividing the American army into numerous small pieces.

It was the 4th Infantry Division that was settling the battle. After putting the 3rd Infantry Division in charge of cleaning up the battlefield. The 4th Infantry Division also immediately shifted the direction of the main attack. At this time, the morale of the troops had reached its peak, the officers and men had already seen the victory, and many officers and men did not even eat dinner, so they went on to fight a new battle. The momentum has been raised, and a force that was originally not favored by Gu Xunlei has turned into a heroic division in an instant!

The battle continued all night, and in the second half of the night, two infantry regiments of the 3rd Infantry Division were also thrown into battle. The American army's will to resist was quickly crushed, and the American army completely collapsed under the combined strangulation of tanks and infantry. But the problem is that now they have no way to escape at all, the battlefield is full of tanks of the Tang Empire, and if they want to survive, the only option is to surrender.

At dawn, more than 20,000 American officers and soldiers became prisoners, but the battle was not over at this time, and there were still three full American infantry divisions that had not been annihilated!

Gu Xunlei gave the officers and men of the 2nd Cavalry Division a four-hour rest at night, and used this time to replenish the tanks with fuel and ammunition. At daybreak, he received a message from the 4th Infantry Division, and after confirming that the American forces to the south had been annihilated, the 2nd Cavalry Division was on the road again, and in front of them were the last three American infantry divisions that had become frightened birds.

During the night, the three northernmost US infantry divisions frantically attacked northward, while the Fifth Infantry Division, which had already arrived during the day, firmly held their defensive positions, blocking the US troops for ten hours, repelling dozens of US attacks, and buying time for other units to annihilate the US troops. And this is the main role of the Fifth Infantry Division, before the other force of American troops arrived, the positions held by the Fifth Infantry Division made the American troops completely desperate.

The battle to annihilate the last American army lasted until about three o'clock in the afternoon, with two cavalry divisions and three infantry divisions all participating. Because the troops had already suffered some losses in the previous day's battle, and the officers and men were also relatively tired, and some of the tanks were destroyed by the US troops or broke down, the annihilation battle dragged on for the longest time. In the end, it was still an assault force led by Zhang Xiaolin who killed the temporary command post of the US army, killed and captured dozens of senior US military officers, as well as two US brigadier generals, and the US army lost its unified command, and as a result, most of the US front-line commanders chose to surrender. If it weren't for Zhang Xiaolin's assault, I'm afraid this war of annihilation would have dragged on for a long time.

It can be said that this is the most beautiful annihilation battle that Gu Xunlei has fought on the Australian continent. The entire battle took less than a day and a half, and more than 30,000 of the 100,000 American troops were eliminated, more than 50,000 American troops were taken prisoner, and less than 10,000 American troops escaped. And in the entire combat operation, the five Imperial Army divisions participating in the war lost less than 10,000 officers and men, more than 40 tanks, and more than 100 vehicles. More importantly, this annihilation battle was basically completed by Gu Xunlei's troops alone, and in combat operations, Gu Xunlei and their support was quite limited.

The result of the battle for a day and a half surprised Gu Xunlei a little, but at the same time, it also gave him more confidence in the officers and soldiers under him. Perhaps, a few days ago, Gu Xunlei was still doubting the combat effectiveness of his army, but now, he realized that in the brutal battle, the officers and soldiers are rapidly learning combat experience, and they are rapidly growing into excellent soldiers, and the troops under his command will soon become the main army!